Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for separating oily contaminants from water. More particularly, these contaminants are removed by contacting the water with deoiled petroleum asphalt bottoms.
It is well known that waste-water streams from industrial and agricultural processes contain or are polluted by oily contaminants. For example, machine oils, greases, fuel oils, and raw oily stocks used for chemical starting materials seem to inexorably get into process water streams despite costly, strenuous and sincere efforts by the processor to avoid such contamination. Since the volume of water normally used in the processing art is immense, there is an urgent need for a simple and inexpensive, yet effective, means to reduce oil contamination of water, the object of the present invention. Treated hydrophilic materials have been proposed as useful and suitable adsorbents, for example cellulosic materials, but these materials are disadvantageous for a number of reasons, including cost and a relatively low capacity for oils.